Kenwood needs better sound engineering and more musical variety argues Michael Hammerson

IN July my wife and I visited our favourite city, Venice, for its 400-year-old Redentore festival; a memorable event with Vivaldi belted out at volumes which would shake the foundations of Kenwood, and climaxing in a spectacular hour-long fireworks display over the Grand Canal.
Tens of thousands watch, along the canals and in boats of all sizes packing the basin in front of St Mark’s Square. Wine flows, the mood is of celebration, but the clean streets, next morning, give little clue of what had gone on the previous night.
The Redentore is vital to Venice, entirely dependent on tourism. It is for one night, not a two-month season. The fireworks explode over the water. Visitors take home their litter and are exceptionally polite when leaving; 2,000 boats – we were on one – cleared the basin in no time. The Venetians love it.
No Venice Preservation Society calls for a reduction in firework noise or a ceiling on visitors, nor does a Venice council impose decibel limits.
We north Londoners equally love our Kenwood concerts, our contribution to London’s culture for half a century. Yet how different is the Redentore from our concerts, where only the valiant efforts of staff to clear up afterwards prevent the estate from becoming the National Litter Collection; where the streets are clogged with traffic (no cars in Venice); and where firework noise and amplification remain an issue for residents over a wide area.
In England, we take these things more seriously, and many feel strongly not only about the local impact of the concerts, but also about the change in the nature of the programme. Complaints about “dumbing-down”, however, miss the mark.
The content may have become more “easy listening” than many would like, but the artistes are always world-class.
A major problem is English Heritage (EH), facing annual real funding cuts, are under relentless pressure to maximise income for maintaining their London properties, and Kenwood has to raise much of this.
In 2003, despite concerns about the continued increase in the number of concerts, groups made no objection to increasing them again, on the assurance that there would be no further increase. Yet in 2004 and 2005 more concerts were proposed, including Sunday afternoons, when people would be excluded from part of the estate, which had to be resisted.
Despite the adverse publicity of the “Greek Royal Wedding Marquee”, subsequent proposals for hiring out marquees in the gardens would have restricted public access for 20 to 30 days a year. In an effort to help, the Kenwood Landscape Forum – a representative body of local groups which meets regularly with EH – made suggestions in 2004 for ways of fundraising which would not compromise Kenwood’s character, but nothing came of that.
Camden Council limit fireworks to three concerts. But this is a minor issue compared with the main problem of equipment which, despite Camden’s decibel limits, and the efforts of acoustic engineers, has failed to contain the sound within the auditorium, with the result that householders at surprising distances can hear the concerts almost as well as if they were there.
The equipment necessary for amplifying popular music needs to be much more powerful than that for classical.
This season’s efforts to contain noise seem to have failed, and residents who have had the concerts monitored by acoustic specialists will be meeting EH and concert organisers IMG this autumn.
The issue of programme content is much more subjective. EH say diversifying the programme has brought many to Kenwood who had never visited before. Words like elitism and inclusivity start to fly, but are unfair to both sides; the issues are much wider.
Do these new visitors come back to visit Kenwood, or do they come only for the concerts? How many former concert-goers have been driven away?
The concerts, in their old form, were a unique asset – its Aldborough or Glyndebourne. Though high quality, they are now radically different. There is surely a compromise.
If just two or three concerts featured a whole opera or symphonies, rather than the selections which have replaced them, it would go far towards making the concert season a genuinely inclusive asset, and even encourage people to come and experience the range of what they have to offer.
Several years ago EH, mistaking concerns about noise levels for objections to the concerts themselves, enlisted Classic-FM DJ Henry Kelly to back one of their licence renewal applications. At the hearing, I recall him saying that he reacted with alarm to “any threat to London’s classical music heritage”. He must be even more alarmed now.

• Michael Hammerson is a vice president of the Highgate Society.